Of Changes and Ethereal Dislike
by Sayloni
Summary: Shikamaru Nara didn't like a lot of things, and 'Changes' occupied the top most position among them. If it wasn't for them, he would still be a lazy kid with no motivation, annoyed by things but having no intention to do anything about them. He would be staring off at the clouds and dreaming of having a peaceful, uneventful life... Alas, 'Changes' just never sat well with him.


Author's Note:

Greetings, everyone.

Sayloni is horrified that she has been so inert for a while now, what with Reality getting to her and all. She did write a few things here and there, on the side of her Calculus notes and at the back of her Electronics textbook… but she couldn't get around to publishing them.

Never mind.

This time around, Sayloni has tried something different. Don't ask her why she wrote it, because she honestly has no idea herself, except for that studying non-stop for almost two entire months had made something in her snap profoundly. Hopefully, it is tasteful to the readers.

Warning:

Not necessarily anything, except the general aloofness and off-handed remarks, and a whole lot of complaining but never doing anything productive about it, and some troublesome-ness, but Sayloni is sure that isn't going to make anyone mind that much.

Disclaimer: 

Sayloni doesn't own Shikamaru-kun or Konohagakure and its residents, neither do the Suna shinobi belong to her, and definitely not the Akatsuki. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto-sensei and a bunch of other mind-blowing people who are responsible for such an epic Series.

The other stories that Sayloni is writing will be updated soon, so please bear with her. But for now, kindly enjoy her first fanfiction regarding one of her favourite Manga/Anime.

Arigatou.

* * *

Shikamaru Nara doesn't like changes.

He never had.

They are the reason he has to visit the barber shop to get rid of the overgrown ebony tresses brushing the small of his back every two months, the reason why he has to get a new bunch of clothes every time the old ones wear out or become just too troublesome to wash.

They are why he has to clean his room every three days or his Mom would be on his trail like a hound on fresh blood's.

They are why he has to adjust his strategies, why he has to gauge and observe each and every aspect of the fight, always keeping ten steps ahead of his enemy, calculating a hundred moves in his mind within a second after every subtle shift in the battle.

They cause him to forget about that little, twelve year old lazy kid staring at the clouds and dreaming of having a normal life.

Changes, he thinks, are nothing but troublesome.

From the time he graduated the Academy, a change that seemed so wonderful in his parents' eyes but just another drag to his tired mind, his life had become nothing but a wheel of alterations.

The _Konohagakure hitai-ate_ had been a bother to place somewhere in his attire.

Iruka-_sensei_ was replaced with Asuma, and Iruka-_sensei_'s yelling about improving their concentration turned to a silent haze of cigarette smoke.

The bunch of mismatched _Genin_ became Team Ten.

He was placed with Chouji, whom he didn't mind in the least bit, and the ever-nagging Yamanaka, and though he was grateful that it hadn't been an energy freak like Kiba or Naruto, or a supposed genius like the Uchiha kid who would've probably nagged him even more about his laziness than Ino ever could, Shikamaru had still had those twitching furrows in his forehead.

Changes just did not go well with him.

Every day after that had been filled with nasty running about and doing odd chores around the village instead of lazing around on wild grass as he would normally do.

Sometimes they'd bump into the other _Genin_, and Kiba or Naruto would call him out in an obnoxiously loud voice.

He would try a half-hearted wave in response.

Chouji would burp.

Ino, as always, would nag.

Sometimes they'd gather around in their regular restaurant and rob Asuma off of all his cash. He didn't mind those times that much either, if only to be amused by the look on the _Jounin_'s face as Chouji stuffed his face with one dish after another. Those times were bearable, he muses.

A change that never failed to irk him, however, was that he couldn't skip out this time and go to the Rec hall of the Academy to doze off anymore.

Him, Chouji, Kiba... and Naruto.

Now was just too troublesome.

Every time he decided on being lazy, someone like Ino or his Mom, the troublesome women that they were, though he thought all of them were the same, would shatter his fantasy and drag him or kick him out of the house respectively to go and get some training done.

He would later wonder vaguely if a change would ever hit those two so that they'd stop being so scary one day.

A change he didn't mind though, were the lazy rounds of _Shogi _with Asuma in the latter's backyard. He could just sit there, content, and move the pieces at little expense of energy, staring off into the sky if he wished to do so. The cigarette smoke on such times didn't bother him much. Even when the _Jounin _would bring him stranger yet games and puzzles, he would be alright with solving them for the man's amusement.

Just when Shikamaru had started adapting to these said changes, those troublesome _Chunin_ exams had struck out his peaceful existence yet again.

He didn't even understand why Asuma would go ahead and propose their names for the thing anyway. He still didn't. They were, after all, _Genin_, barely a few months out of the Academy, and all they had ever participated in were D-rank missions, and if it wasn't for his Shadow Possession, even those stupid missions would have all gone down the drain.

As it turned out, in the end, after fighting girls who were possibly both scarier and smarter than his Mom, even with the invasion of _Konohagakure_ by the _Suna Shinobi_ and his almost but not quite death experience, taking the _Chunin _exams had been nothing but a whole lot more trouble.

Asuma must've been proud to make his life even more troublesome.

Now that Shikamaru cares to think about it, things had started going downhill from there on. The _Ichibi_ mess had been a total drag, and frankly, he still sort of flinches whenever the _Kazekage_ looks at him directly, something that the guy's sister never fails to mock him about. Receiving the _Chunin_ vest had been even worse. The Sasuke incident that had made him shed a few manly tears of relief are still being used as the butt of jokes on most of the obnoxious _Shinobi_'s part. Even Kiba snorts at the imagery of him bawling over their recovery from time to time, and the guy was not even conscious when it had happened. Temari of _Sunagakure_ again... that woman is never going to let him live in peace.

Another change that he is still thankful for was Sakura becoming a medical ninja.

It hadn't been enough though. Nothing could ever make him regard changes as a part of something good happening. The studs that Asuma presented the three of them with on making it as a team of _Chunin_ might've been on the pleasant side of the spectrum, but they didn't matter all that much when the one they received them from was dead. Funny, he thinks, how something as realistic as Death could make him so strongly dislike changes in general.

For the first time ever, moving around aimlessly and being lazy had seemed like such a drag to him, and his Father's obnoxious advice had been nothing much to think about either. Or... maybe it hadn't been all that useless after all. At least nobody joked about his bawling this time.

It was even more troublesome thinking out a foolproof strategy to avenge the said death.

Huh, he should probably buy a book for Kakashi as thank you sometime.

Akatsuki and all those new threats popping out of nowhere... that had been the worst of all. A bunch of freaks, really, Shikamaru thinks. The guys just didn't know when or how to die. This change had made his life even more complicated, and forced some sort of meaning into his simple existence even though he only wanted to continue as before.

Changes were changes, and adapting to them was just so troublesome.

They'd transformed his lazy, motiveless days that were supposed to be spent playing _Shogi_ with Asuma or mindlessly staring off at the clouds floating above into a never ending battle of epic nuisance.

It was them that had him accustomed to even vigorous gluttony on Chouji's part, that had made him effortlessly tune out Ino's haughty remarks about every other thing he did, or rather, didn't do. It was because of them that the people around _Konohagakure _had started viewing him as some sort of Tactician for the _Shinobi_ Forces, and why Lady Tsunade had toppled his existence with one niggling mission after another.

"This will help you gain experience," she used to say with a slight smile, even if he would point out that it was already his sixty-eighth mission as a Squad Leader the very next moment.

She doesn't smile like that anymore.

But then again, so few people he knew could smile like that after such a long time of undergoing one change after the other.

The rebuilding of _Konohagakure_ apparently hadn't done much good for the people in it, and the Fourth _Shinobi _War had just reinforced that notion. Most families now consist of children and women, and even those women are not nagging anybody for their own amusement. That's probably even scarier. The number of _Shinobi_ have steadily decreased, too. Still, things keep changing. They live on, of course, though Shikamaru thinks it's probably because ceasing to exist would simply bring a whole lot more trouble.

Changes, it seemed, were troublesome to everyone, not just him.

His Mom, for instance, became less scary and more pathetic, and if his old man could see her now, he will be somewhat dumbfounded by the changes she has undergone after her Husband's passing away. Ino turned from the haughty, sought after girl to a self-pitying _Genin_ to a braver yet Medical _Kunoichi _who suddenly talks a lot about Violets.

Kurenai seems content with herself and her child, but a closer look at her eyes has shown the Nara that it isn't her typical red in the irises during his oh-so-many visits.

Hinata Hyuga has a kind of melancholy to her colorless eyes, too.

Though he had never exactly been a close buddy, and in fact Shikamaru didn't even like him all that much and still doesn't, Sasuke Uchiha had never smiled once after returning to _Konohagakure_. That might have had something to do with being under constant surveillance by at least three _Shinobi _at any given instance. He still seemed hateful about the entire Uchiha massacre, and Shikamaru really didn't blame him. It was a miracle the guy hadn't gone completely insane. May be he was smiling when he left the village a second time, then?

Well, who knew? The guy was a weird one anyway.

Sakura, though, had seemed devastated by it, going as far as to completely stop hitting her team mate, and even Naruto hadn't cared to comfort her this time around.

Hmm... he is probably too busy being relieved about not having to be on the receiving end of fatal assaults anymore. In fact, he still passes up any chance of having _Ramen_, even if someone is willingly treating him to it. Even his Sexy_ Jutsu_ has become no more than an old legend. Iruka-_sensei_ showing up from time to time doesn't have much effect on him either.

Shikamaru used to worry at some point back then, but he figured Ichiraku wouldn't be going out of business just because one brat who refused to grow up had stopped visiting it on a regular basis.

At least he's eating healthier now, Shikamaru tells himself.

If he's eating at all, that is.

Sai seems more distressed than even the _Kunoichi _about the Uchiha leaving, most likely due to Naruto's glum reaction to it. It's kind of weird seeing him bring lunch for the idiot every other day. Shikamaru can't imagine the scene where the guy made those sickly, girly looking _bento_ boxes, all the while with that creepy smile in place. He might as well have given Naruto a bunch of rocks, and the idiot would have swallowed them down without a glance to whatever was brought.

Team Guy still is lost without the haughty Hyuga to keep the rest of them in line; anyone can see that, and though Tenten does a good imitation of him about shouting at her Sensei and kicking Lee every chance she gets, there are just some things that strikes Shikamaru as missing. Their Springtime of Youth doesn't seem to be approaching anytime soon.

Even that loud kid Konohamaru seems to be rubbed off into Naruto's solemnity.

And he himself... it's funny, that although he claims he doesn't fancy changes, how he has undergone them himself, how his lazy and aloof personality has twisted to portray what Asuma and the Third had called their 'Will of Fire'...

After all, they couldn't be kids all their life.

Changes really were troublesome.

To Shikamaru, it still feels strange to look back on those days and smile. Not that he's all that fond of remembering a past that wasn't even all that real. The stupid pranks they pulled on with Iruka-_sensei_, how they split into groups to pursue their dreams of a brilliant and sunlit future as _Genin_s, how they worked together without knowing the grief and torment of Wars... when these changes hadn't happened to them, when they were still brats who joked and lazed around, who could laugh at stupid things and do those stupid things and not be plagued by them for the rest of their existence.

He remembers how Naruto used to go around goofing off and playing S-level pranks with the entire population of _Konohagakure_.

He doesn't anymore.

He remembers how Chouji's biggest treasure used to be pack of beef flavoured chips from the Land of Tea.

They aren't anymore.

He remembers how Ino and Sakura found the energy to keep on bickering amongst the two of them every chance they got.

They don't anymore.

He remembers how cigarette smoke used to make his eyes water.

It doesn't anymore.

Changes... they were always so troublesome. And while one took them for granted and moved on, some just couldn't be that mature about them.

Naruto is still mostly his obnoxious self though, chanting about how he will be _Hokage_ someday, and that neither he, to which Shikamaru patiently replies "I don't care about becoming _Hokage_, Naruto. It's just too troublesome", nor Kiba can snatch the title away from him, and definitely not Konohamaru, a name that had replaced Sasuke's after the guy had just upped and disappeared on the village again. Shikamaru wonders why the idiot even intends to face off against a _Shinobi_ who has just attained _Chunin_ level anyway. Well, Naruto never did get to that level himself, and now it just seems weird for him to take the exams since he's become a Sage and defeated Pain and all, so it didn't seem all that unfair. Though, admittedly, he seems less of his stupid self now.

Highly subdued now, Chouji still continues to stuff his face nonetheless.

Kakashi still seems to be smitten by those horrid books, and he has managed to pull even the innocent Iruka-sensei, and possibly Yamato-san, into it as well.

Shino still sulks at the way others seem to forget he's there. That, Shikamaru thinks to himself while shaking his head, is probably never going to change.

Lee and Guy-sensei are still preaching the Spring time of youth, whatever that is supposed to mean. And Tenten makes sure to drop a dry remark at their every full-fledged grin and thumbs up if she is not busy beating her team mate to a pulp.

Kiba still has Akamaru. He'll probably have him even after another sixty years.

It' still strange, Shikamaru thinks, and troublesome. _Konohagakure_ has returned to its former glory as one of the most powerful _Shinobi_ Villages again, standing proud and united and having its relations with the other villages strengthened. Although the Uchiha clan is no more and the system of Hyuga clan's main house and branch families has been abolished, _Konoha_ remains respected from all over the world and from within.

Shikamaru still thinks that most of the things he's forced to do are troublesome.

Changes... he doesn't like them.

Never had, anyway.

They warped with time, forcing the world around and within him to move ahead regardless of whether he wanted them to or not. They made the young dreamers in them realize the harsh, ugly truth about the World; they forced them to grow up. They were the reason why nothing ever remained the same way as it once was, pure and light and unadulterated.

Shikamaru still thinks it's rather strange.

In the end, changes were just too troublesome for him to be thankful about.

* * *

Author's Note:

Sayloni is still not sure where that came from, except that Shikamaru is one of her most beloved characters (probably because he reminds her so much of herself; a lazy genius, so to say) and she thought it was fun to write something pertaining to his attitude towards anything remotely troublesome.

Changes, like we all know, are bothersome.

Anyways, enough of Sayloni's babbling. Please read and review regardless of whether she did a good job or not, because you may snicker when she says this, but criticism (constructive or otherwise) helps to augment Sayloni's writing further.

Or she'll use her shadow possession to make you write one!

Alright, bad joke. It's not like Sayloni really has any Ninjutsu to use on the dear readers… although she wished she did. Just imagine having the brute strength to knock down walls, or simply being able to make Kage Bunshin! Sayloni could probably eat a hundred times worth of food at an instant, and complete her every work within a second. That'd mean, like, a dozen updates everyday! Now that's real talent.

Or probably just her laziness getting ahead of her…

Anyway, do review. Also, requests are welcome.

Arigatou.

(^_^)/


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